Offensive Cyber Defense and Artificial Intelligence

Abstract

Cyber Defense is a new Capability area within the Armed Forces. Unlike the traditional domains where armed conflicts take place – land, sea and air – Cyberspace has, in addition to its territorial anchorage, an important configuration component that gives it the characteristics of virtuality. However, it is not exempt from effects produced in the physical world when an operation initiated in the virtual domain. In the current state of the art, the protection of Cyberspace is mostly defensive, so in principle it would not require offensive elements to achieve the objective, however the conceptual and technological development is migrating towards proactive and non-reactive systems, driven by technologies. Disruptive technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI). In this sense, the dual use – civil and military – of technologies for cyber protection would entail the risk of the spread of automated attacks using weapons equipped with AI and their possible indirect effects on the physical world, so it is necessary to explore the normative aspect of its development and use in war scenarios. This article aims to raise questions and concerns regarding the challenge of the emergence of this new technology and its dual use, civil and military.